Foldable furniture, and especially foldable tables are relatively popular and numerous manners of making tables foldable are known in the art. For example, many foldable tables include legs that are directly attached to the table at one end of the leg via a pivot, while other tables include legs that are removably attached to the table via a pivot. Direct attachment via a pivot is typically relatively simple, however, often requires considerable space for folding the legs and may pose risk of unintended collapse of the table when the table is being pushed in one or another direction. Removable legs significantly improve stability, however, folding tables with removable legs is often cumbersome.
Other known foldable tables include legs in which one or two legs are attached to the table via a four bar link, wherein the bars of the four bar link are attached on the sides of the table. For example, Ladd describes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,41,569 a foldable bed in which a four bar link is coupled to the side rails of the bed and assists folding of the front and rear legs. Similarly, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,057,778 and 2,318,945, a four bar link mechanism in a foldable table is attached to side rails of the table. Alternatively, Pucci describes in U.S. Pat. No. 2,666,683 a foldable table in which the four bar link is attached to the inside surface of the table circumference, thus allowing stacking/folding of the table when the legs are folded underneath the table. However, in such configurations, the stability is greatly dependent on the table circumference. Still further, Puccis's configurations without a specific locking mechanism are more likely to collapse when the table is being pushed in one or another direction.
Alternatively, a modified four bar link may be employed in which a pedestal is slidably and pivotably coupled to the table (via a bracket) as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,695,827 and 2,657,963 to deSaussure and Fox, respectively. While such configurations are especially advantageous where tables are stacked on top of each other in the closed configuration, stability is frequently less than desirable, especially where an end-to-end force is applied to the table.
In still further known tables, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,180 5,636,578, the four bars of the four bar link may be attached to a mounting platform, which is in turn attached to the table top. Such configurations advantageously allow positioning of the leg or legs in a more central position (i.e., between the sides of the table, and/or between the ends of the table). However, to provide at least some stability to the table, the mounting platform typically requires solid attachment to the underside of the table top, and further requires that the table top is of sufficient rigidity to accommodate front-to-back and/or side-to-side forces impinging on the table. Therefore, mounting platforms are generally not useful in conjunction with a table top made from light-weight material (e.g., blow molded plastic). While such configurations may add at least some stability and ease of folding, various disadvantages still remain. Among other things, where the four bar link is attached to the sides or side rails, stacking of such tables id often problematic as the legs protrude from the underside of the table.
Thus, while numerous configurations for folding tables are known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Therefore, there is still a need to provide improved apparatus and methods for foldable tables, and especially foldable tables with a four bar link.